Birthday Surprises
by lost soul of silver
Summary: Lyra thought she had the perfect idea to surprise Khoury on his birthday. But giving him an anxiety attack wasn't part of it... (Khoury/Lyra)


**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Pokémon franchise and never will. This is a story I wrote just for fun because I'm a fan of Pokémon.**

 **Prompt:** _ **Imagine it's person B's birthday so person A wakes up early to bring them breakfast in bed. Turns out person A has a special skill for ruining and burning any meal they try to create. Cue person A into their room shouting "FIRE" while person B runs to action and assures person A they would rather have cereal anyway.**_ **(Taken from the OTP Prompts Tumblr page.)**

 **A/N: I intended to post this on the date stated in the beginning of the story, but work got in the way and I couldn't finish it in time. So, happy late headcanoned birthday, Khoury. \\(-.-)/**

 **But really, like most of this story are basically my own headcanons. Which isn't really so weird, until you consider the fact that Khoury and Lyra are minor characters that appeared in only 5 episodes. How I became THIS obsessed with these two, I have no idea...**

 **Anywaaayyyy. Enjoy the story!**

 **EDIT (01/07/16): Fixed some errors that I noticed.**

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 **Birthday Surprises**

Lyra typically wasn't a morning person, but the morning of November 20th was an exception.

It took all of her willpower to rise at the crack of dawn, but she managed to force herself to climb out from underneath her bedcovers. Her legs slung over the side of the bed, she stretched her arms out wide, her bones cracking audibly. As her body slowly woke up, she shot a glance over her shoulder at the birthday boy, Khoury, lying next to her. Her anxiety-ridden mess of a boyfriend appeared so peaceful in his sleep, almost like an innocent child; she smiled at the sight.

 _Can't wait to see that adorable face of his smiling when I serve him his breakfast in bed!_ the brunette thought with excitement. She carefully rose from the bed to avoid waking the light sleeper and, with quick and light steps, made her way to the kitchen.

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Spatula in hand, Lyra carefully placed a strip of raw bacon into the skillet, hearing it sizzle alongside the other two pieces on the hot, black surface. "Hmm... Perfect!" she muttered to herself, smiling at her work as she dropped the spatula onto the counter.

Cooking wasn't one of her talents—she was well aware of this fact. She learned how to cook from her own mother, who was known for ruining even the simplest dishes. Lyra had vivid memories of her childhood home nearly catching fire because her mother tried to boil water on the stove.

 _Making breakfast looks super easy, though,_ the young woman thought, placing two slices of buttered bread in the toaster and pushing the lever downward. _I've watched Dad and Khoury make breakfast several times before. It's basically just flipping things in a pan and making sure nothing gets burned, so I'm pretty confident in myself about this. Khoury's gonna love his surprise!_ She giggled again, her cheeks flushing at the thought of her boyfriend grinning and praising her for her kind gesture.

There was a loud pop, and a hot liquid struck her bare arm, snapping her out of her pleasant daydream.

" _Ow_! What the—" Lyra whirled around to face the source. The bacon strips, now wrinkled and turning a light shade of brown, laid in the grease that was drained from them, which bubbled and crackled furiously from the heat of the stove. Cursing under her breath, she snatched the spatula and flipped each strip of meat, ignoring the pain from the hot liquid that splashed on her hands as she did so. With this task done, she tossed the spatula aside, adjusted the heat on the stove, and took a quick step back. The popping grease then seemed to settle; she heaved a sigh of relief. _Good thing Khoury likes his bacon crispy..._

She stepped away from the stove for a moment, crouching down to open one of the cabinets beneath the counter. After yanking out two bowls and tossing them onto the counter, she slammed the door and stood once again, prancing over to the table where Khoury's laptop sat. Flipping open the top of the device, the sizzling of the bacon on the stove became white noise in the background as she became engrossed in opening the Internet browser and typing into the Google search field.

" _How to make pancakes from scratch..._ " Lyra muttered under her breath as she gingerly pressed each key, hitting 'enter' to bring up the results. _Alright, let's see here..._ Brown eyes narrowed in concentration, she took in the instructions listed on the laptop screen. _Whisk one and a half cups of flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, half a teaspoon of salt, one-fourth teaspoon of—oh, wow, this looks kinda complicated. Forget it._

Her fingers slid over the touch pad, hovering the mouse over the 'X' in the top-right corner of the window. She froze. Two sides of her battled inside her mind: her logical side told her to give up on the idea of making pancakes, considering the fact that she was a terrible cook and would easily mess up the recipe somehow; but her sensitive, caring side urged her to attempt the idea anyway. Khoury absolutely _loved_ pancakes, after all, and made them for breakfast so often that Lyra was sick of them.

After about five full minutes of consideration, she finally gave in to her sensitive side.

"Whatever, it's worth a shot. Even if they're terrible, I'm sure he'll appreciate the effort."

Her eyes scanned over the instructions again as she backed away, prepared to head for the pantry. But a powerful aroma striking her nasal cavities stopped her in her tracks.

" _Ugh_!" Lyra's hand slapped over her nose. "What is— Oh, crap."

She pivoted on her heel, facing the stove to find gray smoke rising from the skillet, four coal black strips laying in the crackling grease. Cursing under her breath, Lyra rushed over to it; just as her trembling hand managed to grab the spatula, the liquid burst into flames.

" _Fire_!" she shrieked instinctively, and her cry was immediately followed by a loud _thunk_ from two rooms away—presumably the sound of Khoury falling out of bed. She rushed to the sink in a panic, the sound of her heavy footsteps syncing with the ones that swiftly entered the kitchen.

"L-Lyra!" Khoury shouted, dark brown eyes immediately focusing on the fire on the stove. "What did you do?!"

"No time to explain!" Lyra snatched a glass and filled it with tap water, and she then made a mad dash toward the stove. "Stand back!"

" _No_!"

The young man's cry came just a second too late. The water was already clumsily thrown from the glass and scattered onto the tiny fire in the pan. Instantly, the flames erupted from the fuel that fed it, reaching higher toward the ceiling. Lyra shrieked again, the glass slipping from her hand, and it crashed into hundreds of tiny shards on the hardwood floor.

Khoury stumbled over to the stove, his shaking hands scrambling for the pan cover that laid just inches away from the fire. He slapped it overtop the orange flames, smothering them inside the pan, and Lyra's eyes widened slightly with amazement. _That's really all it took...?_

The dark-green-haired man then let out a sharp breath. Her body tensed, watching with fear and worry as her boyfriend slowly slid the pan to a separate burner, turned off the stove, and looked up at her, all the while breathing heavily.

He didn't appear angry like she had feared. Instead, his face was painted with panic, his wide eyes glazed over with tears. His entire body trembled with each shaky breath he took in, and his hands remained glued to the edge of the stove—that was possibly the only reason he was still on his feet.

To lighten the tension in the room, Lyra giggled, whipping out her jazz hands. " _Surprise_! Happy birthday, Khoury..."

Khoury merely stared back at her for a few moments. Then he heaved a wavering sigh, one hand tightly gripping the stove as he brought the other up to rub against his sweaty forehead. "Lyra... what have I told you about trying to cook on your own?"

The brunette averted her gaze to the floor, where the pieces of glass were still scattered. That, and the pungent aroma of burning grease still hanging in the air, reminded her of how badly she messed up on such a simple task. "I-I'm sorry... I just really wanted to surprise you, so..."

Another shaky breath left Khoury's mouth; he extended one hand to her, beckoning her to come toward him. She hesitated before carefully hopping over the shattered glass and making her way over to him. Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her close to him, and her own arms automatically snaked around his torso, embracing him tightly to cease his jittering.

"I really appreciate the thought, Lyra," he muttered, his hand rubbing her back soothingly. "Thanks for trying..."

Lyra smiled, looking up to meet his warm, dark brown eyes. She leaned in, her lips lightly brushing against his...

 _DING._

The sudden sound made Khoury yelp and stumble forward, clinging to Lyra's body like a lifeline. His breaths became heavy again, his entire form shaking.

Lyra laughed anxiously. "Oh... looks like the toast is ready!"

The young man's body relaxed against her, the rapid pounding of his heart gradually returning to its normal speed. _Almost had two heart attacks today, and it's not even six in the morning yet..._

"Hey," his girlfriend piped up again, pulling away to look him in the face. "I know I really messed up, but I could still make you some pancakes, if you'd—"

" _No_." The forcefulness in his voice made her hopeful smile fall from her face. Feeling a tinge of guilt, he cleared his throat and continued in a softer voice: "N-no, it's alright... You know, I think I'd rather have a bowl of cereal instead this morning. Think you can manage that?"

Lyra giggled. "Yeah, of course!"

Khoury let out a light, almost soundless laugh and planted a kiss atop her tangled brown hair. She giggled again, feeling her guilt and disappointment ease away.

"Alright, now get back to bed," the brunette said, shoving him away with a bit more force than was probably intended. "I'll bring your breakfast to you in a few minutes, like I had originally planned. And you're gonna act surprised about it, okay?" To further illustrate her seriousness, she narrowed her eyes and jabbed a finger at him.

"Okay, okay..." he replied with a breathy laugh. "Just so long as it's not... _too_ big of a surprise. I've had enough surprises for today."

It was then that Lyra noticed the anxiety still present in Khoury's mannerisms: the weak way his lips curled upward into a smile, his drooping eyes, the wavering of his voice. Feeling another sting of guilt, she reached up to run her hand through his curly, dark green hair; he seemed to relax beneath her soothing touch.

"I won't screw it up too bad. Now, go back to bed and relax!"

"O-okay..." With another awkward smile, Khoury turned on his heel and trudged back toward their bedroom, clutching to the walls along the way for support.

Once the young man was out of sight, Lyra released a sigh of exasperation. Her eyes fell upon the skillet on the stove, then averted to the shattered glass on the floor. _Well,_ that _was a total failure..._

But as she proceeded to clean up her mess, her negative feelings of the experience faded away, leaving behind a tiny bit of hope. She smiled to herself for the rest of the morning as a new idea began to formulate in the recesses of her mind.

 _I'll just have Marina give me cooking lessons, and hopefully by next year, I can surprise Khoury with an amazing, full-course meal for dinner!_

 ** _The End_**

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 **A/N: Not the best ending, I know. :/ I hope it was still enjoyable nonetheless.**

 **And I realized about halfway through writing this that this story could end up seeming really sad rather than humorous. I mean, completely screwing up something that was meant to make someone happy and disappointing them is a really terrible feeling... But I hope I succeeded in writing the situation so it leaned more toward humorous. Or whatever.**

 **Oh and also I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT THESE TWO TO GET A REAPPEARANCE IN THE ANIME. EVEN IF IT'S A SMALL CAMEO APPEARANCE. OR I AT LEAST NEED A DECENT WRITER TO WRITE A JOURNEY FIC THAT CENTERS AROUND THEM. I JUST. UGH. I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS AND THEY DESERVE SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT THEY HAVE.**

 **Ahem. Sorry.**

 **Weellll I'm not expecting this to really get any reviews or anything, since it's an unpopular ship. And I'm basically the only writer on here that still writes for it. ;-; But if you took the time to read this, please leave a review to let me know your thoughts! :D**

 **~Hayley**

 _ **Note: Please read the notice at the bottom of my profile before reviewing.**_


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